Friday, September 23, 2016
Wish You Were Here, from Outcault
This Friday's cartoonist postcard is labeled (on the back) as Tuck's New "Outcault" Series Valentines Postcard #7. It is a divided back with no copyright year indicated. Late 1900s would be my guess.
The divided back has a large drawing of Tige taking up most of the room reserved for a message, and I'm betting that's what attracted little Billy to choose it. Something tells me that Billy didn't have any great desire to send a Valentine to his uncle (whose name he seemingly can't even remember), and he sure didn't want to waste precious moments on adding a message to the back. Smart kid, that Billy.
The lack of a signature on this card, and the mismatched sizes of Buster and Tige, lead me to guess that Tuck just cut and pasted some off-the-shelf art to create this uninspired card.
EDIT: As Mark Johnson astutely recognized, these aren't cut and pastes, they're tracings (and not great ones, to boot). The original image seems to also be a Tuck postcard, pre-1907 and likely 1906, which has the same gag but in rebus form. Here's one for sale on eBay. While still not Outcault at his best at least in the original Buster's body parts are sized more harmoniously. Thanks Mark!
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Comments:
Hello Allen-
It looks to me that it isn't RFO at all, the line work is really wrong, especially on Tige. Buster looks pretty dwarfen, too. Some hack at the Tuck offices, probably. The bifurcated back indicates it's issued after the spring of 1907, when an act of congress was passed authorizing such a thing went into effect.
It looks to me that it isn't RFO at all, the line work is really wrong, especially on Tige. Buster looks pretty dwarfen, too. Some hack at the Tuck offices, probably. The bifurcated back indicates it's issued after the spring of 1907, when an act of congress was passed authorizing such a thing went into effect.
# posted by 
: 9/23/2016 9:20 AM
: 9/23/2016 9:20 AM
Available on Ebay this morning isanother Tuck card of Buster & Tige in these exact poses, actually by Outcault from 1906. It would seems the 1907 update was a quick tracing by an unsigned post card laborer.
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# posted by : 10/04/2016 8:29 AM
: 10/04/2016 8:29 AM 